Cyborg Roaches

Hundreds of crawling insects carrying little radio transmitters and sensors in tiny roach backpacks may one day be used to scurry around damaged or contaminated buildings after an earthquake, chemical spill or nuclear reactor accident, and help emergency responders see what's going on. Roaches would be especially useful because they're "natural explorers" and they're also more energy-efficient than fully robotic devices.

But the roaches would have to be big enough to carry the small electronic backpacks, and scientists say the Madagascar hissing cockroach would be big enough to fit the bill.